Too Busy for a Friend...???
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of e other
students in e room on 2 sheets of paper, leaving a space between
each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say
about
each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their
assignment,
and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on
a separate sheet of paper,
and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the
entire class was
smiling.
"Really?" she heard whispered.
"I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and,
"I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of the
comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.
She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their
parents, but it didn't matter.
The exercise had accomplished its purpose.
The students were happy with themselves and one
another.
That group of students moved on.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and
his teacher
attended the funeral of that special student.
She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before.
He looked so handsome, so mature.
The church was packed with his friends.
One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the
coffin.
The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer
came up to her.
"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded:
"yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together
to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak
with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet
out of his pocket.
"They found this on Mark when he was killed.
We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of
notebook
paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many
times.
The teacher knew without looking that
the papers were the ones on
which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates
had said about him.
"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said.
"As you can see, Mark treasured it."
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around.
Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list.
It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's wife said,
"Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding
album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took
out
her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group.
"I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without
batting an eyelash,
she continued: "I think we all saved our
lists."
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried.
She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him
again.
The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that
life will end one day.
And we don't know when that one day will be.
So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are
special and important.
Tell
them, before it is too late. =)_


by:a e-mail of my __ =)